Category: Stocks and Bonds

  • The Swiss Fixed Annuity

    The Swiss Fixed Annuity is a contract with a stable Swiss insurance company that guarantees your principal and all interest payments. It has a flexible duration, and may be liquidated at any time. It is one of the very few interest-bearing investments in Switzerland not subject to Swiss withholding tax. Principal and interest are guaranteed…

  • Trading bonds for capital gain

    In my view, sticking to the common myth that bonds should be bought and then stored in a safety deposit box is a foolish way to invest. Bonds are investment instruments that must be traded like you would trade a stock. To most of you, a bond is a secure, mostly stagnant investment that provides…

  • About the marketplace

    By Bill Cara – The market is the theatre of life where the play is all about time and money. If investing represents our journey and trading mirrors the paths we take, then the market is the big show, the place all of us experience it. Anything you read from the Trader Wizard will echo…

  • Expats opt for offshore investments

    AMSTERDAM – Nearly three-quarters of expats in Europe have invested offshore, according to a new study. And a similar percentage claim to have either matched (46 percent) or outperformed the stock markets (33 percent). But the number of expats who think markets will grow in the next year has slumped to 53 percent compared to…

  • What you need to know to invest online

    In the heyday of Net stocks and do-it-yourself investing, the question wasn’t whether you traded stocks online, it was with whom. It seemed like everyone was doing it. By the time the market peaked in March 2000, there were 12 million to 15 million online brokerage accounts, and more than a third of all trading…

  • Foreign Brokerage Possibilities

    Last week, I received the following request from Beijing: A question: you mention technologies that enable regular investors to invest globally. Are you aware of a brokerage that offers investors with $30-50K accounts, say, US, Canada, Japan, HK, Singapore, and Thailand stocks at internet broker prices? A discussion of inexpensive ways to directly invest globally…

  • Venture capitalists see golden opportunity in China

    Venture capitalists across Silicon Valley are falling for China. Tom Shields, partner at the Woodside Fund, sticks a teach-yourself-Mandarin CD into his car player as he heads to his office in Redwood Shores. Down the Peninsula, Joseph Tzeng, partner at Crystal Ventures, packs for another trip to Beijing. He’s teaching himself to skip breakfast and…